31 | To Hell

LUCA DIDN'T HESITATE. His switchblade came out again in a flash of silver and he had it at my throat. "Don't make me do something you'd regret," he sneered.

I tried not to whimper but this time I really could feel the blade dragging across my skin.

"Grace is an employee," Alex shrugged. "She is not worth whatever you are asking for."

Luca smiled. I didn't like his smile - how easygoing it was, how utterly in control. He grabbed my jaw with his spare hand and turned my head up to him again, this time brushing his thumb across my bottom lip.

"Stop," I pleaded, recoiling from his touch. "Please don't do this."

Naturally he ignored me. The switchblade was dragged down my neck, the hollow at the bottom of my throat, my chest. It didn't make me bleed, but the pressure was just enough to scratch the surface. It left in its wake the promise of more.

"I'm going to tell you exactly what I want, and when I want it," Luca spoke directly to Alex, keeping the blade pressed firmly over my heart. "You are going to agree to my terms," he continued, applying enough pressure to make me wince, "or I am going to start cutting."

"You're speaking to the wrong man."

"I am speaking to the future of the Ivanov mafia," Luca said shortly. "I have no business with your father, soon he will be long gone."

The truth of my current situation hit me like a bullet to the head. All of this time Alexei had tiptoed around his career, his job, his business, he'd spent so much time hiding things from me and keeping his life a secret. Now I knew.

Now I really knew. Alex and his father ran an organised crime group. All this time I'd been helping to save people's lives...but the people I'd been saving were criminals.

I hadn't been oblivious to the shady nature of whatever Alex did, but the mafia?

"Is that a threat?" Alexei's ice cold response drew my attention back to the conversation. He raised a brow challengingly at Luca.

"I don't threaten, I promise. But no, my family will have no hand in Viktor's demise. He's handling that well enough himself."

Alex's expression remained cool as he tipped his head back slightly as if to appraise Luca. From this angle, the sharpness of his cheekbones was emphasised, darkened by a layer of stubble that curved around his jaw. His Adam's apple bobbed when he swallowed, preparing to speak. "I won't give you what you ask for."

Luca shrugged. "Wrong answer."

Instantly I felt a searing pain in my chest as the tip of the blade dug into my skin. I bit my lip to keep from crying out but it wasn't hard to tell from the way my face screwed up that I was in pain.

"Hvatit!" Alex barked, pulling against the restraints which kept him seated. His eyes flickered to mine for a second but I quickly looked away. He'd already proved he had no real investment in my safety. He didn't care, and I realised suddenly that I felt betrayed.

(Stop)

"I don't speak your filthy language."

"Don't hurt her. She doesn't deserve to be involved in this. Bringing an innocent in makes you weak, Luca." I could feel Alex's eyes boring into the bleeding wound on my chest but I couldn't bring myself to look at him.

The other man chuckled, wiping his blade on a silk handkerchief. "No, Alexei. It makes you weak." I was wearing a cream blouse which now had a small hole where the switchblade had pierced. With one swift movement Luca ripped my shirt open to expose the wound beneath. I cowered away but he grabbed my hair to hold me still. With his spare hand, he wiped the handkerchief across the torn skin to soak up the blood which poured out of it.

Then he threw the used material at Alex's feet.

"Please let me go," I cried suddenly, overwhelmed by my vulnerability and Alex's apparent disregard for my life. "My dad, he...he needs me, I can't leave him alone, he wouldn't know how to cope and- oh my god, he already lost my mum he can't lose me too! He needs me to remind him to take his vitamins and eat healthy and not devolve into a complete and utter mess of grief. I mean, I'm pretty sure he'd keep going but he needs me..."

I trailed off when I realised both men had been staring - no, glaring - at me for the past few minutes of my rant. Apparently now was neither the time nor the place, but when I got stressed or upset or angry I just talked.

"I'm growing tired of this game," Luca sighed. Before I knew what was happening I felt something hard and solid hit me square in the back, causing me to go reeling over once again. Smashing my face into the concrete floor was no less painful the second time around.

"Here's the deal, Ivanov. You're going to give me twenty five percent of your territory in London, and you're going to put me in contact with one of your suppliers. The Bonanno are getting up my ass and I've no patience with them any longer. Once we have superseded them, we will take over and you will receive ten percent of our spoils in recompense." Luca took a few steps so he stood beside my crumpled body. "The terms are non negotiable."

I heard Alex chuckle, though I couldn't see anything from my position on the ground. "Like I would bow down to you."

"Oh, you're not doing this for me." Luca fisted my hair for the third time and dragged me on to my knees. I could feel a warm, sticky trail of blood running down from my nose and my back ached dully where it had been kicked. "You're doing it for her."

I was forced forward, knees scraping again until I was practically leaning against Alex's knees. I couldn't bring myself to open my eyes and see his face - see the cold mask of disinterest that had practically signed a warrant on the end of my life.

"Look at him!!" Luca roared, a wall of rage suddenly overtaking him. He yanked my hair back so my head turned up to Alex. The tears running from my eyes mixed with blood from my nose, forming what must have been a pitiful sight.

"Stop fucking hurting her," Alex snarled quietly, his sharp eyes pointed furiously at Luca. "Or when I get out of here, I will rip you limb from limb until there is nothing left. I will cut your dick off and feed it to your fucking children, you sick fuck."

The lump in my throat thickened as I struggled to breathe through my panic. Every illusion I'd had of Alex had suddenly been washed away, every rose tinted vision I'd clung to like a stupid, naive girl.

"Ask him to save you," Luca commanded me, giving another sharp tug on my hair.

I only cried harder.

"Beg him not to let me hurt you. Beg him!!" The last part was a roar so loud my ears rang and I started stammering gibberish, barely able to see Alex through my tears.

"A-Alex," I stuttered, "p-p-please..."

Alexei's eyes seemed haunted as he stared down at me, the first real flicker of emotion I'd witnessed. Then he raised his glare to Luca. "You are going to hell," he whispered, "and I am going to put you there."

On this cue a muffled bang went off across the room and following a moment later was a second which came much too close for comfort. Behind me I heard Luca fall to the ground with a thump, yelling a string of Italian profanities. I glanced to my left quickly and saw Sergei along with two other men I didn't recognise holding guns up. Clearly they had killed the giant who was now slumped on the ground on their way in, then taken a shot at Luca.

"Grace, move," Alex ordered as Luca writhed in pain behind me. I didn't know how I was supposed to move or where to but I did remember that Luca had several guns stashed in holsters on his person, and he was, although injured, very much alive.

With a groan of pain I began shuffling on my knees, desperate to escape from the man behind me. I aimed to reach a position behind Alex's chair but just as I began making progress I felt a hand clamp down on my left calf, pulling me back.

Luca had grabbed me while he fumbled for a gun with his spare hand, but thankfully this gave Sergei ample time to reach us. He immediately put one boot-clad foot down heavily on top of Luca's holster so he could no longer reach it, crushing him no doubt with his weight. Sergei bent down and wrapped his fingers around the other man's throat, keeping a gun aimed to his head while squeezing until satisfyingly wet choking noises rang out into the warehouse. "Don't fucking move," Sergei snarled, "or you're dead."

In the mean time, I'd barely registered the two other men who had made their way over to Alex and I, quickly unfastening us from our restraints.

"We don't have long," Alex said once he was free. The man who had untied him handed him a gun which he proceeded to check for ammunition before tucking into his belt. "I'll grab Grace."

**

I felt numb.

When Alex picked me up and carried me in his arms, numb. When he put me in the back of an armoured SUV? Numb. I was littered with injuries, my back ached, my nose was still bleeding along with my chest, I was pretty sure most of my hair had been pulled out, and I was still just numb.

As the SUV began to pull away from the warehouse the sound of gunfire started up and a load of Gambino soldiers swarmed the area.

"Get down," Alex commanded, but his voice sounded muffled and faraway. He grabbed me and pulled me into the footwell of the backseats so that I was sat between his legs as gunfire rained over our heads and pierced the windows.

On the driver's side, Sergei leaned his seat right back and pressed his foot down on the accelerator, steering us out of the compound and onto a dirt track. I didn't know how long it was before the gunshots stopped but eventually the persistent noise went silent.

"Grace?" Alex asked, presumably seeking confirmation I was alive. I couldn't bring myself to respond. "Grace? Are you okay? We need to get you bandaged up, can you hear me?"

It was the most questions I'd ever heard Alexei utter. Usually he was the man who knew everything.

"She's not answering, damnit!! Pull over," he snarled to Sergei.

"Stopping now wouldn't be advisable, boss," the other man said hesitantly.

"Grace." Alex's hands were on my shoulders, he reached a hand around to cup my chin and turned my head so he could see my face better.

I could feel my body shaking in his arms.

"Please answer me," he breathed, leaning his head into my hair. "Grace." My name was nothing more than a whisper of hot air against my neck.

"She's probably in shock, boss."

"She needs medical attention, she's bleeding," Alex hissed.

"She is the medical attention."

In one rapid motion Alexei removed his hands from my shoulders and unfastened his tie, balling it up and pressing it to the injury on my chest to mop up the blood.

"Grace?" Sergei called from the front of the SUV. "Everything okay?"

"N–no," I stammered as sobs finally started to wrack my body. I couldn't bring myself to say any more.

"Has Victor got wind of this yet?" Alex requested sharply. He still had one hand wrapped around my waist, the other cradling my head to his chest.

"He's on his way back," Sergei affirmed.

Alex let out a long, slow breath. "Fuck."

"Where do you want me to take you, boss? The Docks?"

"We need to make a stop first at my apartment. Grace needs to be somewhere safe."

"And you?"

Alex's voice beside my ear was a low growl. "I have a rat to deal with."